A Koenigsegg Just Spanked EV Hypercars Into Oblivion

A record-shattering run has redefined hypercar speed, with updates promising the same blistering performance for every customer car on the road

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Before the Bugatti Veyron, no production car had ever cracked the 400 km/h (248.5 mph) barrier. That milestone once defined the outer edge of performance.

Today, a select few hypercars can not only surpass it with ease but also accelerate to 400 km/h and return to a standstill in less time than the Veyron and its successor, the Chiron, needed just to reach that speed. The Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut now stands once again at the top of this elite performance category.

Watch: Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut Smashes Speed Records Like It’s Just Another Day

This isn’t the first time the Jesko Absolut has held this record. In July 2024, it completed the sprint to 400 km/h and back to a standstill in just 27.83 seconds. However, this time was recently beaten by the Rimac Nevera R with a time of 25.79 seconds. Not one to let a rival hypercar manufacturer get one up on it, Koenigsegg set about making the Jesko Absolut even quicker.

Unlocking more speed

To do so, they’ve developed Absolut Overdrive. By using improved software strategies, Koenigsegg has been able to limit the amount of traction control intervention off the line, making it quicker than ever before.

The same test car that ran 27.83 seconds last year has now completed the same feat in just 25.21 seconds, narrowly beating out the Rimac. Making the time all the more impressive is that it was done on a drying runway.

Perspective on the numbers

To put the Jesko’s time into perspective, the Bugatti Chiron set a new 0-400-0 km/h (0-248.5-0 mph) record of 41.96 seconds back in 2017. The Jesko is more than 16 seconds quicker.

It also rattled off some other impressive times. The run to 400 km/h (248.5 mph) itself was completed in 16.77 seconds, and it braked from 400-0 km/h (248.5-0 mph) in just 8.44 seconds. It also ran from 0-250-0 mph (0-402.3-0 km/h) in 25.67 seconds.

There’s more good news for those lucky Jesko Absolut owners out there. Koenigsegg says that the refinements made will be rolled out to customer cars, allowing them to experience the same extraordinary performance in their own machines.